You know how the software developers are always mocked because they don’t comply with the time limits? Read this article about my experience of hiring a team of freelancers who went way over the deadline.

Not so long ago I hired a team of freelancers to work on a project of mine.

Everything started as it usually starts. I found several teams, some through friends and some – through a website. I met with team leaders, we discussed my requirements, we agreed on time and on a budget. I picked the team that looked the most reliable to me, they rolled up their sleeves and started to work.

Since the first time when I managed to get users for my WordCloud app, some time has passed. Now it has 300 000 users – three hundred thousand users in three months.

The number amazes me. It seems almost unbelievable! I honestly never imagined having more than 10 000 users. It’s incredible.

Daily downloads graph – currently the average is 4000 downloads per day.

And users are not just using the app silently. Oh, no! They leave reviews, they have problems, and they complain about everything. But sometimes – more often than not – they make compliments, and share their work, and they are grateful. And this is the most interesting and rewarding part of working on something!

Here I want to share some nice and interesting things users asked me or shared with me.

When I read an article or a book about architecture, framework, approach, or tool – I focus on “why” it was built or applied one way or another. Not “what” they did, not “how exactly” they applied it – but “why”. Read here to know “why” I think it’s important.

What interests you when you read an article or a book about an architecture of some big system, or about new frameworks, or design patterns, or some new fancy tools?

To me, the most interesting thing is why they did it like they describe.

I first published it in October, and yesterday it reached 50,000 installs. I still can’t believe this number! In the beginning I wasn’t getting any downloads, and now!.. I’m very happy with how it goes.

But today, something happened. Someone emailed me and asked me to send them the source code. They wanted it so badly, they emailed me several times, and even called me on Hangouts. It seemed urgent! They needed this code! Now! This instant!

But, wait… why would someone need someone else’s source code?

I asked that person and found out: they wanted to present it as their graduate work in the university.